How to Set Up and Configure WordPress

Promoting Your WordPress Blog - The Importance of Content

OK - having got your blog set up, widgets configured, plugins installed and a zippy theme in place, you now need to focus on content.

So forget about its appearance for now – you can come back to that later.

Blogs are about content, content and content.

Whether that’s pictures, videos, articles or whatever – you have to focus on content.

Don't Promote Your Blog Too Early

My suggestion is that you don’t do anything to promote your blog until you have at least 20 articles on there. (Or the equivalent in images, videos, or whatever content you’re planning on putting up).

You need to build up a good store of information behind the scenes and then launch your blog when there’s lots there for people to see and explore.

If you do it the other way round the only visitor you’ll still have after a couple of weeks will be your Mum.

Remember also that you need to keep adding content to your blog.

If you’ve picked a good (for you) subject to blog about this won’t be too much of a chore. The difficult part will be restraining yourself from publicizing it before you’re ready!

How Often Should You Post?

You’ll see lots of articles about blogging telling you that you have to post a new article every day, sometimes multiple times a day.

If you can do that easily go for it. But don’t feel you have to.

You’re far better off putting up 2 quality articles a week than 7 bad ones.

When I started my blog I was only putting up 1 article a week. Even now, nearly 2 years later, I only put up 2, maximum 3 a week.

Much more important is that your passion and enthusiasm for what you’re writing about comes across. This is what will attract and keep readers.

Write with enthusiasm, express your views clearly, don’t hedge your bets and you’ll build a following.

One thing that is important, though, is routine.

If you want to put up 1 article a week be sure to do so. If it’s 3 articles a day then maintain that schedule as well.

Writing Style

Writing a blog is very different from writing school essays, and very different from writing in the corporate world.

Unless you’re writing a blog focused on one of the professions (law, medicine, etc) your writing style needs to be easy going and informal.

Readers don’t want to be faced with large chunks of text and they don’t want sentences that ramble on for ever.

Web readers have little time and even less patience!

Break up your text. Use short paragraphs, short sentences, bullet points, bolding, italics, headers and sub headers to enable your readers to assimilate your information quickly.

You can create tone and urgency with bolding, italics and all capitals - use all the tools in your toolbox!

Write like you talk. Blogs are conversations and readers like to be able to read them quickly and easily. Writing like you talk is a good way to establish a connection with your reader and turning your blog into a conversation piece.

One of the best ways of doing this is to read your article out loud to yourself before you publish it. Does it sound natural? Is that the way you talk?

If either of those answers are 'no' go back and re-write the bits that sound awkward.

Leave your article before editing it. After you've finished your final draft, leave your article for a few hours before re-reading and editing it. It enables you to come to it with a fresh mind - which is what your reader will have.

One of the best sources for learning copy writing for the web is here:

CopyBlogger

It’s a blog focused on providing copy writing tips for Internet marketers and publishers, and I’ve learnt more about copy writing from here than from any other source.

It’s absolutely free and I do recommend you subscribe or sign up for email updates.

OK - next step is to look at ways you can market and promote your blog